The annual online South African contemporary dance conference JOMBA! MASIHAMBISANE DIALOGUES, hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts’ JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience, taking place from May 22 to 24, 2024, has attracted significant participation from around the globe.
This conference or academic colloquium, is now in its fourth edition and will feature dance-makers, academics, dancers, educators, and researchers from 11 countries including Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, France, Germany, South Africa, UK, USA, and Zimbabwe. The theme or “provocation” this year is (RE)TURN TO THE DRUM? looking at contemporary dance’s engagements with traditions, cultures, memory, hybridity, and contested identities.
The conference which is free and open to all interested, features keynote addresses, panel discussions, as well as “abstracts or papers” presented by participants.
An opening keynote address will be made by steering committee member Dr Mbongeni Mtshali, a performance-maker, scholar, artist, and teacher based at the University of Cape Town, in dialogue with the rest of the steering committee that includes dance-focused academics, researchers, and practitioners:
Clare Craighead (lecturer at the Durban University of Technology),
David Thatanelo
April (director, teacher, choreographer, and dance lobbyist),
Gift Marovatsanga (CEO and Facilitator at Refined Images Studio),
Dr Lliane Loots (lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal),
Dr Sarahleigh Castelyn (Associate Professor/Reader University of East London UK),
Thobile Maphanga (dance practitioner, scholar, creative collaborator, reading for her MA
at UKZN) and
Prof Yvette Hutchison (South African Reader/Associate Professor at the University of Warwick
UK).
Keynote dialogues will be held with Dada Masilo, South African dancer and choreographer, known for her unique and innovative interpretations of classical ballets;
SA-born, now
France-based Robyn Orlin an internationally celebrated contemporary
dance-maker, dancer and teacher;
Mamela Nyamza
award-winning choreographer and dancer who is known globally for her innovative
and deeply intersectional and political dance-making;
Vincent Sekwati
Mantsoe, winner of international and national awards in performance and
choreography, demonstrates that to be successfully integrated into the
performance arena as a contemporary artist, one does not have to disavow one’s
cultural heritage;
Moeketsi Koena
professional dancer, teacher and choreographer, and co-founder of newly
incorporated Itrotra Art X Connection - a newly registered arts platform.
Additionally, Canadian Dena Davida introduces TURBA, a new journal that negotiates histories of the study and practice of live arts curation, and Thobile Maphanga chairs a fascinating panel with Albert Ibokwe Khoza (South Africa), Djam Neguin (Cape Verde) and Lorin Sookool (South Africa) titled where they will interrogate a possible common zeitgeist that is calling these contemporary artists from Africa, to dig up ‘past’ narratives and re-present them in the bold ways that they are.
Papers, digital engagements, and further dialogues open up important discussions around contemporary identity and how it relates to imagined and real histories as they intersect with culture and tradition in dance-making. The “(re)turn to the drum” is set up as both a question and as a tipping point to think about our futures.
Some of these papers and engagements will be presented by:
-
Alexandra Gonçalves Dias, dance artist and Professor at UFPEL in
Brazil, with a dedicated focus on decolonising narratives;
-
Claude Jansen, part of Dancing Instruments - In
Conversation with Looted oBjeCts – a long-term journey with a team of
Namibian and German curators, healers, artists and (O)Ngoma Drums;
-
Fabrice Mazliah, a choreographer and performer/dancer based in Germany/Switzerland, who
has initiated long-term research into embodied knowledge and the heritage
inscribed into dance practitioners;
-
Francesca Matthys, a South African Interdisciplinary dance artist, writer, facilitator and
Kundalini yoga teacher based in London;
-
Kristi-Leigh Gresse, a South African dancer and choreographer
known for her transformative impact on the arts.
-
Lara Barzon, an EUTOPIA co-tutelle PhD fellow with a joint PhD between Theatre and
Performance Studies (University of Warwick) and Cultural Studies (University of
Ljubljana);
-
Marcia Mzindle, a freelance writer, drama, and performance tutor at the University of
KwaZulu Natal (Howard College), choreographer, and dancer;
-
Onalenna Sellwane, a writer, theatre maker, and digital marketing creative based in
Johannesburg;
-
Rainy Demerson, a dance artist and
scholar invested in global intersectional feminism and decolonial embodiments;
-
Saranya Devan, recognised for her versatility in drama, dance performance, and
choreography and holds a Masters in Bharathanatyam from the University of
Madras and a Masters in Dance from the UCT;
-
Sylvia “Magogo” Glasser, a cultural activist, teacher, choreographer,
mentor, anthropologist, and writer, who founded Moving into Dance in 1978 as a
non-racial dance company and training organisation and was director until 2013;
-
Tatenda Kanengoni, a Zimbabwean writer, researcher, and multimedia storyteller.
The conference will be streamed live on YouTube on the following link https://www.youtube.com/jomba_dance.
Participants will present on Zoom, and those who wish to apply to join in the “Zoom Room”, can contact Thobile Maphanga at thobimaphanga@gmail.com
For more information
and news, as well as the schedule – go to:
https://jomba.ukzn.ac.za/masihambisane-dialogues/
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